Son of Radiance
by Dragons' Day
Summary: These are the stories of the descendants of the Radiant Hero Ike, beginning with his own offspring, and continuing on to the legend of Priam. In Tellius, the year 666, we are introduced to the young man Herald. Raised by the wanderer Shinon all his life, his origins are unknown, but as he strikes out on his own path, new truths may be revealed about him.
1. Bastard of Radiance Part 1

Crimea 666.

Herald sat in front of the house running a whetstone down his sword. Shinon always told him to keep it sharp, and the pony-tailed vagabond would no doubt bite his head off if he didn't follow through on his instruction.

Everyday was the same: split the firewood, set the traps, tend to the garden, train with Shinon, fletch arrows, hunt, check the traps, then finally get some rest. Somehow, in all of that time, Herald was expected to keep his sword sharp. It was a miracle that he hadn't run away yet. Truth be told, he rather liked his simple life in the countryside.

Shinon, however, had other plans.

"Herald," he said as the younger man worked, "I have enjoyed your company over all these years, but you're a man grown now. I can't be taking care of you anymore."

"Taking care of me?" Herald almost laughed. "If anything, I'm taking care of you, old man."

"Very funny."

At first, Herald thought he had won that verbal altercation, but Shinon had more determination than he had accounted for.

"Listen Herald, you're a talented young man, and you deserve more than I have to offer."

"But I like what you have to offer. I've never been dissatisfied with my life here, and I don't see any reason to leave. Besides, you may not be my father, but I like living with you."

Shinon decided not to let him know just how much he appreciated that.

"Still, your martial skill is wasted here. You'd have a successful career in the military if you applied."

"I'm not so sure."

"Just think about it, Herald. You'd be a defender of the realm standing up against injustice. You could be a hero, just like Ike."

"A hero just like Ike" was the kind of thing small children would say when they were naive enough to believe such a thing was attainable, or even desirable. If Herald was as old as Shinon wanted him to believe, he was definitely too old for that tactic to work on him.

"Ike wasn't much older than me when he died though."

"We don't know if… Fine Herald, if you want to argue, I won't force you, but you have to understand that I only want what's best for you, just like your parents surely did."

"When they abandoned me? Is that what you're doing?"

"Of course not. No decent parent would let their child sit around and waste their gifts."

"Is that what you told Rolf?"

"You had to bring Rolf into this, didn't you? I was Rolf's teacher, not his guardian. He probably doesn't want anything to do with me anymore. I don't want to burn another bridge, but you have to understand, I'm doing this because I care about you."

Herald was no longer responding.

"I'll make you a deal, Herald. If anything goes wrong, you know my haunts. You'll always have a place to stay with me, no matter what happens."

"Is that a promise?"

"You have my word."

Herald hugged Shinon, grabbed his bow, and got ready to hunt. The conversation did not resume, for the next day, Herald had his things packed, and said goodbye to his longtime guardian.

"I don't know you do it," Shinon said to no one in particular, "but you always manage to beat me, you bastard."

Just about as soon as Herald left, he found himself unsure of what to do and where to go. It stood to reason that if he wanted to enlist in the Crimean army, he would need to make the long journey to Melior. While he had no idea just how long it would be, it had to be many days by foot.

Fortunately, he didn't have to. Not an hour away from Shinon's house was an unassuming rural town where a militia may be looking for recruits. Upon looking around, Herald didn't find anything like that, but he did find a notice on the cathedral door that read.

"Recruits wanted for the renowned Greil Mercenaries."

Herald recalled stories that Shinon had told him about these Mercenaries. They were the company that he ran with years ago during the Mad King's War, as well as the War of the Laguz Alliance and the Goddesses' War. In this time of peace, they would be in Greil's Retreat, an old fort that Shinon avoided like the plague.

"Forget the army," he thought, "this is where I belong."

To be continued…


	2. Bastard of Radiance Part 2

Commander Titania stood at the entrance of Greil's Retreat when her vice commander Mist came riding in.

"How was the journey, Mist?" she asked.

"Boring," she replied, "the town was in order, the countryside was quiet, and everything went off without a hitch. I almost wanted a highwayman to attack me, just so I could stretch my sword arm a bit."

"I know you're bored, and I'm sure your husband is too, but remember, this peace was hard won, and it wouldn't do to harbor this resentment for it."

"I know, Titania."

The commander had been saying that for years, but it never changed Mist's mind.

"Enough about that," Mist said, "how has the search for recruits gone?"

"I can't imagine why this is," Titania said, "but after having the notice posted for a month, we've only had two potential members show up. I suppose the Greil Mercenaries aren't quite so…"

Titania's voice trailed off as an eerily familiar face approached the fort.

"What is it, Titania?"

Mist turned about to see what it was that had taken away Titania's voice. He was dressed like an archer, wore his hair in a low ponytail, and was barely full grown, but his face was unmistakable.

"It can't be," the commander whispered, barely loud enough for Mist to hear.

"He looks just like him," she added.

"Hello," called the blue-haired man, "my name is Herald. I've come to join the Greil Mercenaries."

Titania and Most looked at each other, before turning their eyes back to Herald.

"Welcome, Herald," Titania replied, "if you're interested in joining, then give me a moment to fetch my commander."

Mist whispered something to Titania that clearly wasn't meant for Herald to hear. The scarlet haired commander nudged her younger companion in order to shut her up, and lead her into the fort, with Herald waiting outside.

As he waited, two green haired men came around to the Fort's entrance, laughing and drenched in sweat. Immediately as they saw Herald, their laughter stopped. One of them, the older and larger or the two, drew an axe and stepped forward.

"Who are you," he asked, "and why the hell do you look like Ike?"

As though mimicking his companion, the other man drew an axe as well. Though he was younger and smaller in stature, his axe was quite a bit larger, as though he were compensating for this.

"I look like Ike?" Herald asked, trying his best to deter the angry fighters, "I wouldn't know, I never met him."

"Does he really look like him, Father," asked the younger man.

"He's too young to be him," the older replied, "but he is a dead ringer. If Ike had ever had a son, I'd expect him to look just like that."

"I'm pretty sure I'm not Ike's son," Herald said, "granted, I never knew my parents, but Shinon would have told me if…"

"Wait," the older man stopped him, "did you say Shinon? Did that bastard send you here?"

"Well, sort of, he…"

The axe wielded clearly didn't want to hear what Herald had to say.

"Of all the insults that guy could come up with, he sends us an Ike imposter, and not even a good one."

"I'm not an imposter, I'm just here to join the…"

Once again, Herald was cut off.

"You're not joining anything on my watch except the scum that you and Shinon crawled out of. You may look like him, but Armin here is the closest thing to a son of Ike we could have. In fact, Armin, how about you rough him up a bit before we send him back to Shinon's mud hole."

Herald was certainly not hoping for a fight to break out, but as Armin charged at him with his axe, he knew it couldn't be avoided. Drawing his sword, he caught the blade just as it was about to cleave him in two.

"Are you crazy?" he cried, "You could kill me with that."

"Whatever," Armin's father told him, "no one would miss you, just like Shinon."

Armin swung at him again and again, but Herald matched each blow, save the ones he dodged. At one point, he dodged a downward swing that lodged Armin's axe in the ground. Placing his foot on its head, Herald attempted again to reason with his assailants.

"Look, how about we stop fighting like idiots and talk about my recruitment. You wouldn't want to be doing this kind of nonsense when your commander gets here."

"Condescending, just like Shinon," Armin's father said, "Armin, you know what to do."

"Yes father."

Armin let go of his axe and punched Herald in the abdomen. The blue haired swordsman staggered back sputtering, as Armin removed his axe from the ground and readied to strike again.

Their fight wore on for a few blows more before Titania and Mist returned, along with a man with grassy green hair and a girl with similarly colored pigtails.

"Boyd! Armin! What exactly do you think you're doing?" Titania demanded.

"Chasing off the salt Shinon wants to rub in our wounds," Boyd explained.

"He knows Shinon?" the moss-headed man asked.

"That's not important," Titania said, "we could use capable new recruits, and I won't have you chasing him off just because he might look like Ike or might be related to Shinon."

Armin put away his axe and returned to his father's side.

"Thank you," Herald said, uncertain of who he was speaking to.

"Commander Titania," Titania said, "here to offer you a chance to join the Greil Mercenaries. Amy, Taurnel, get out here!"

A woman with flowing robes and a boy in white armor appeared before them.

"This is Herald, he'll be joining you in your endeavor to become a full-fledged member of our company."

The three new recruits introduced themselves to one another, before Titania urged them off.

"It would be prudent for you to get started on your training," she said, "we'll have a field mission for the three of you very soon."

Excited, the three recruits went off to the field to begin their training. As they did this, Boyd, Mist, and Armin had a sort of silent exchange. Be it for his resemblance of Ike, his connection to Shinon, or a bit of both, the three couldn't help but hate him.

To be continued…


End file.
